Communication System

Lecture 1
 Digital communication system
 Important features of a DCS:
 The transmitter sends a waveform from a finite set of possible
waveforms during a limited time

 The channel distorts, attenuates the transmitted signal and adds

noise to it.

 The receiver decides which waveform was transmitted given the

noisy received signal

 The probability of an erroneous decision is an important measure

for the system performance

2 Lecture 1
 Digital versus analog
 Advantages of digital communications:
 Regenerator receiver

Original Regenerated
pulse pulse

Propagation distance

 Different kinds of digital signal are treated identically.

Voice
Data A bit is a bit!
Media
3 Lecture 1
Digital versus analog....
 Error Correction

• Linear Block Codes

• Convolutional Codes

• Turbo Codes

 Encryption and Decryption

Random Variable and Random Process
 All the communication signals are random. The receiver does
not have any A Priori Information about the transmitted
signals.

 Random Variable X(A) represents the functional relationship

between the random event A and a number.
Random process
 A random process is a collection of time functions, or signals, corresponding to
various outcomes of a random experiment. For each outcome, there exists a
deterministic function, which is called a sample function or a realization.

Random
variables
Real number

Sample functions
or realizations
(deterministic
function)
time (t)
6 Lecture 1
 Noise in communication systems
 Thermal noise is described by a zero-mean Gaussian random
process, n(t).
 Its PSD is flat, hence, it is called white noise.

[w/Hz]

Power spectral
density

Probability density function

7 Lecture 1
 Signal transmission through linear systems
Input Output
Linear system
 Deterministic signals:
 Random signals:

 Ideal distortion less transmission:

All the frequency components of the signal not only arrive with an
identical time delay, but also are amplified or attenuated equally.

8 Lecture 1